This volume provides a wide-ranging survey of the American Methodist family of Churches through eighteen essays that develop the history of American Methodism (part i), the ‘religious culture’ of American Methodism (part ii), and the relationship between Methodists and society (part iii). The editor's introductory essay (chapter i, ‘American Methodism: a theological tradition’) sets the tone for the whole by describing Methodism according to ‘a series of creative adaptations of … theological sensibilities’ (p. 10). American Methodism, according to Vickers, emerged in the context of revivalism, evolved into several, clearly defined theological languages, and remains open to ‘dogmatic development’ today.
Notably, neither the introduction nor the first historical chapter begin with an introduction to the lives and thought of John and Charles Wesley (Russell Richey, ‘Early American Methodism’, ch. ii). The essays mention the influence of the Wesleys generally, but there is no substantial treatment of the so-called ‘three rises’ of Methodism in Oxford, Georgia and London, or any specific examination of the American debt to eighteenth-century England. Rather, American Methodism emerged from several centres of religious piety and awakening, including developments among evangelists and lay preachers from England who formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, German-American Christians in the United Brethren and Evangelical Association, and men and women in the African Methodist Episcopal and African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churches. In time, the already pluralistic and de-centered movement faced tensions over authority, race, economics and culture. By the beginning of the American Civil War, Methodism was divided ‘into no fewer than eight “Methodist” denominations’ (Douglas Strong, ‘The nineteenth century’, p. 74). Still, American Methodism flourished even as the young nation prospered. Methodists exuded confidence and their influence was felt in every city, town and village outpost in the nation. They founded churches, established schools and promoted literacy through a far-reaching print culture. Yet the American Methodist capacity to respond to social change with nimble, Evangelical sensibility simultaneously produced fractures that would only heal through compromise. Unity for some Methodists was purchased at a high price in the twentieth century, as the ecumenical spirit of the times overshadowed the advancement of women and minorities in the leadership of the Church.
Against the tendency to equate American Methodism with United Methodism, the authors consistently weave between various branches of the broad family of Methodist and Wesleyan Churches. Rather than separate chapters devoted to single expressions of Methodism – Free Methodists, African Methodist Episcopal (AME), Nazarenes, etc. – each author develops a single idea or topic with reference to the various expressions of the movement in the United States. This pluralistic approach has a largely positive impact on the collection as a whole: the narrative focuses not on the largest bodies or the ones with the most influence in American society, but rather on the shared concerns of the whole. In such a view, John and Charles Wesley suddenly become less relevant than some other accounts of American Methodism may imply. I have mixed reactions to this dimension of the narrative, yet there is no doubt that AME churches draw more from the influence of Richard Allen than the Wesleys and Wesleyan Holiness churches depend on the pivotal mediation of theologians such as Phoebe Palmer.
The benefits of a pluralistic approach to American Methodism become apparent in later parts of the collection, where the authors move seamlessly between Wesleyan traditions in their study of a variety of themes and issues. Some of the best essays appear in part ii (‘The religious culture of American Methodism’), including a remarkable explanation of ‘Sacraments and life-cycle rituals’ by Karen B. Westerfield Tucker (ch. vi), an account of ‘Healing’ that reveals the strong ties between Methodism and Holiness-Pentecostal churches (Candy Gunther Brown, ch. xi), and an illuminating survey of life-writing in Ted A. Campbell's ‘Spiritual biography and autobiography’ (ch. xii). Some well-rehearsed events and controversies begin to feel repetitive by part iii (‘Methodists and American society’), but readers should not overlook these insightful treatments of race, women, war and popular culture. Morris L. Davis's essay, for instance, reminds readers that even as the Methodist Church was voted into existence in the merger of 1939, black delegates sat and wept while white delegates celebrated the union by standing and singing ‘We're Marching to Zion’ (ch. xiv). As Dennis C. Dickerson's study of black Methodism and the civil rights movement explains, ‘African-American Methodists inherited ecclesiastical bodies committed to an emancipation ethos’ (ch. xv). Undoubtedly, social concern permeates the American Methodist experience, and something similar to Dickerson's comment on emancipation could be said of Methodist women as well as those facing the ethical dilemmas of modern military action.
Some familiar themes that the essayists either ignore or pass over too quickly left me wishing at times for a heavier editorial hand. Underrepresented topics such as American Methodist hymnody as well as the crucial histories of Native American and Hispanic Methodists each convinced me that eliminating areas of repetition in favour of neglected topics could have produced a more consistent volume on the whole. One misleading chapter title promises an exploration of ‘Asceticism’, but instead offers an otherwise tangential explication of American Methodist opposition to tobacco during the nineteenth century. More significantly, I remain surprised that the topic of homosexuality does not appear more prominently in such a wide-ranging collection. No single issue threatens the well-being of the United Methodist Church (the largest body of American Methodists) more than the questions surrounding same-sex marriage and ordination. However, though the hefty Companion comprises 400 pages of history, personalities and controversies, I located only eleven cursory sentences in two essays that mention the crisis (‘American Methodism in the twentieth century’ and ‘Clergy’). Perhaps the topic is too controversial, too recent and too difficult to write about without aligning the volume with either one party or another and thereby entrenching the collection in a mire of division in the process. Perhaps, alternatively, the volume simply reflects the status quo of American Methodism – pressing forward, despite significant divisions, with as little controversy as possible. Either way, the topic will almost certainly be a more prominent part of future histories of the American Methodist story. In the meantime, students, teachers and seasoned scholars alike will value The Cambridge companion to American Methodism for its review of major topics in the field as well as for its efforts to advance the conversation through well-written, scholarly forays into the varieties of American Methodist history, doctrine and practice.
